Is worth the harassment from random characters?

When is it appropriate to use an absolute reference

Description: write function lastfirst() that takes one argument—a list of strings of the format "lastname, firstname" —and returns a list consisting of two lists: (a) a list of all the last names (b) a list of all the first names

Write a program that asks the user to enter the name of an input file. if the file does not exist, the program should prompt the user to enter the file name again. if the user types quit in any uppercase/lowercase combinations, then the program should exit without any further output.